"We were all in it together, and a united front kept spirits up where at times words wouldn't suffice."
As part of the Whipps Cross spotlight series on porters, we caught up with porter supervisor, Kieran Nevin, to discuss all things portering before and during the pandemic.
What does a normal day look like for you?
I am a portering supervisor at Whipps Cross and I ensure the smooth running of shifts in conjunction with other managers. I train our porters and manage sickness, but the most important part of my job is jumping in to assist the porters with their tasks when we are busy and maintaining the service.
What roles can porters have within the hospital?
Porters can have many different roles, but they are mainly split into three categories, those being general, pharmacy and waste. Some porters are trained in every category. The general porters are responsible for patient movements as well as beds, trolleys and wheel chairs. This can be for inpatient x-rays or moving patients for additional requests from doctor’s rounds such as MRI scans. They collect specimens and transport blood. They also attend crash calls, such as if there is a cardiac incident outside or somewhere in the hospital, our porters will be one of the first attending with trolleys to get the patient to a place of safety. They can also assist with security or fire alarm activations or evacuations if there is a real threat.
Pharmacy porters are involved with getting prescriptions to wards as well as the movement of controlled drugs, which is incredibly important.
Our waste porters work both inside and outside the hospital building. Those inside will ensure that general and infectious waste gets outside the building onto the service roads, where it is collected by another porter who will transport it to a local yard. Whipps Cross is one of the few hospitals in London equipped to treat our own waste on site.
We will also assist with anything else in our remit and ad hoc requests such as equipment moves.
What do you enjoy most about being a porter?
I’ve been at Whipps Cross for a few years now and I started out as porter. The interaction I had with patients, meeting new people and hearing their stories was my favourite part of the job. You learn quickly that most people are happy to share a lot about themselves when talking to a porter and it’s great that they feel comfortable to talk to us.
What’s the most interesting conversation you’ve had with a patient?
There have been a lot, but the one that sticks out in my mind is hearing the story of a patient who had won the lottery, but that a life time of bad decisions had left him with nothing. He was surprisingly upbeat and happy to share his story. We had a good walk from Sycamore Ward to the x-ray department and I felt like I had learned a valuable lesson from him by the end of it.
How did the pandemic affect your role and the roles of the porters?
Like all other members of staff we quickly had to change the way we did our jobs, including donning and doffing of PPE for every job we attended. It took much longer to do our jobs safely. We saw many more deceased patients than we had ever seen before in a short period and this affected many of us in different ways. We were used to seeing one or two deceased patients from our palliative care department, but this increased dramatically. It was an incredibly difficult and sad time for us but the team all seemed to cope well.
How did you support each other through this time?
The best way we could of hoped to support each other was simply to be available. To be here on site for each other and take the weight off each other where we could. To be a confidant or simply present. We were all in it together, and a united front kept spirits up where at times words wouldn't suffice.
Tell us something interesting about you
I was a Metropolitan police constable for several years previously. I also worked at Whittingdon Hospital as a security guard and security supervisor for over 10 years. I always seem to find myself in frontline roles wherever I land, I guess that’s the way I’m programmed.
Is there anything else you want to add?
I’ve been with the hospital for the best part of two years and I have greatly enjoyed my time here. We are like a community here, I work with a great team and there’s never a dull moment. The team have continued with a good attitude despite the pandemic. I have an overwhelming feeling of pride to be a part of the community of frontline staff at Whipps Cross Hospital.
